IT will soon be two years since the killing of North-East student Ashleigh Hall shocked people across the country.

And the inadequacies of the way her killer was monitored by the authorities are still being investigated.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPPC) has already highlighted serious flaws in the way North-East police forces tracked registered sex offender Peter Chapman who groomed Darlington 17-year-old Ashleigh on Facebook.

But we still await a separate investigation into the role of Merseyside Police, which allowed Chapman to roam free for nine months before sounding a nationwide alert.

In view of the concerns this tragic case has raised, I am baffled by the Home Office's decision not to force sex offenders to register their online identities. Why not?

Darlington MP Jenny Chapman has called on Home Secretary Theresa May to ensure all sex offenders are required to register their online identities - and face tough prison sentences if they are found to be in breach of the rules.

But despite assurances that the Home Secretary was "taking it on board", it has today emerged that the Government will not be progressing the idea.

So far, there has been no explanation, other than a vague Home Office statement, saying: "The police already have a range of tools and powers available to them to manage sex offenders..."

Well, those tools and powers were found to be sadly lacking in the case of Ashleigh Hall and Peter Chapman.

We all have to accept that policing the internet is extremely difficult.

But surely the lesson to learn from the way Ashleigh Hall was failed by the system is that anything which makes it harder for sex offenders to prey on vulnerable young people should be to acted upon.